52 • The Writer’s Chronicle • Volume 43 Number 4

A name popped into my head the other day. A name I hadn’t thought about for years. Van Wyck Brooks. You might have

heard of him. He was a wonderfully readable critic and literary biographer, active through the first half of the 20th century. Though mostly out of print today, Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, and made the cover of Time magazine in 1949. His masterwork was a five-volume, blockbuster survey called Makers and Finders: a History of the Writer in America, 1800–1915. Brooks was a generous historian who picked forgotten writers (“minnows” Time called them) out of obscurity, dusted them off, and displayed them alongside the “big fish” in his panorama of American prose.

I thought about Brooks in connection with an idea put forward by an organization called The American Writers Museum Foundation. I think it’s a splendid idea, and I think that if Van Wyck Brooks were alive today, he’d think so too.

The idea is that the United States should have an American Writers Museum. That this museum would celebrate and share America’s literary achievements—past and present. That this place would be a shrine to literary excellence, a monument to books and their creators, and a national center of gravity for the written word. The Museum under consideration would be profoundly and characteristically American—of, by, and for the people. It would be a proud carnival of our

American soul in all its raucous diversity, and like Walt Whitman, “contain multitudes.”

You could make a museum like this dull. But it would take a lot of work. America has a gift for outrageous fictional creations. Their creators are at least as interesting: Mark Twain piloting a steamboat; Vladimir Nabokov and his butterfly net; O. Henry in jail; Zora Neale Hurston taking notes at a voodoo rite; Hart Crane, smiling and waving as he slips beneath the waves. Van Wyck Brooks could give you dozens more examples. Tom Robbins is right to call us “the least boring country on earth.”

Why should the idea of an American Writers Museum particularly appeal to me? I’m a lifelong collector of rare books. I’ve assembled at least six major collections and distributed them to libraries and special collections around the country. I am especially fortunate to have original manuscripts of (among others) Rockwell Kent, Alan Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. (Ginsberg and Burroughs themselves have been guests in my home.) Yes, collectors know the price of all these things; but we also know their value. We are avid readers, worshippers of the written word, and pretty much always fans of the authors we collect.

Collectors know the joy of bringing a book or artifact into what Walter Benjamin calls “the magic circle” of possession. The fascination of seeing the Final Proof of a favorite book. The knowledge that can be gleaned from studying an original manuscript, covered over with an author’s notes, emendations, cigarette burns and wine stains. We know that writers are human beings with complex

lives and often interesting vices. We know that the book and its manuscript and its author are intimately bound to their historical moment, with all its follies and delusions. We also appreciate that the great writer and great book soar beyond their own period, and speak to new generations with continuing immediacy.

Finally, the collector knows what’s out there. We know the incredible trove of books, manuscripts, and artifacts that are hidden away in the hundreds of special collections and private libraries that specialize in American writers. We know that if even a fraction of this material would be allowed to circulate through an American Writers Museum, it would be a priceless gift to the nation.

Anyone who’s ever met a writer might wonder why anyone would ever want to build a museum to honor these creatures. Writers can be fairly marginal characters. No parent could responsibly urge their child to live in emulation of William Faulkner or Tupac Shakur. Writing is an odd, solitary vocation, suited to the introvert, the outsider, the opposite of the stereotypical American glad-hander. Even our sunniest authors, our Emersons and Frank L. Baums, struggle with something dark and unaccountable. In Herman Melville and Hemingway, it literally breaks the surface. Darkest of all may be our humorists: S.J. Perelman, Dorothy Parker, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ambrose Bierce.

As soon as you start making a list of names, you realize that this is the Museum of the American Writer—not solely the American novelist, or journalist, or historian. Now we see the full scope of

Robert H. Jackson, a senior partner at the Cleveland law firm, Kohrman Jackson & Krantz P.L.L. and a rare book consultant, is a noted collector of rare books, antiquities, and tribal art. He has widely lectured about literature, rare books, libraries, and travel throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Filling a Void: The American Writers Museum:

A Museum Whose Time Has Come

by Robert H. Jackson

…this museum would celebrate and share America’s

literary achievements—past and present… this place

would be shrine to literary excellence, a monument

to books and their creators, and a national center

of gravity for the written word.

February 2011 • The Writer’s Chronicle • 53

this project, and its potential to encompass the whole of the American life and spirit, past and present, high and low. Any roll call of American writers would include Barack Obama, Caryl Chessman, Cotton Mather, George Plimpton, Davy Crockett… the roster goes on and on until you realize that the American writer occupies every corner of American life, and relates to every chapter of our national story.

A case may be made for the writer as the universal American. There is room for everyone on the great stage of authorship. The American writer is native and immigrant; judge, criminal, and victim; the enactor of history and its recorder. Those who were marginalized and excluded by the rest of society found their voice as American writers. American books have been leading indicators of social change, from Common Sense to Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Feminine Mystique.

The government of the United States of America was created by writers. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams not only wrote, but wrote well. They and other founders wrote books long before they wrote our nation’s founding documents. We have the world’s first government based upon the written word, and continue to study, debate, and refer to those words as if they were they were written yesterday.

Sidney Smith was an early 19th-century English divine and society wit. Among his least brilliant sayings was the haughty rhetorical question, “In all the four corners of the earth, who reads an American book?” The American Writers Museum might want to carve those words onto its lintel. American literary archetypes populate the dreams of children and fire

the dreams of parents around the world. American movies and popular music are among our chief exports—and American writers are party to both.

People have been predicting the death of the written word since the beginning of the 20th century. Radio, video, and the internet were each in their turn expected to replace writing with a simpler, more direct form of communication. But writing has not only persisted, it has thrived. The internet has proven to be the world’s most capacious bookstore and library. Blogs and social media have turned a whole generation into critics and commentators, generating words in unprecedented volume. Blogger Anne Trubek of Oberlin College wrote an essay to this effect, titled “We Are All Writers Now”—possibly earning herself an entry in some future online version of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.”

The American Writers Museum Foundation has produced an admirable prospectus outlining the details of their proposed museum. It’s a good, solid plan. They envisage an experience built around a core overview of American literature, surrounded by individual author exhibits, temporary themed exhibits, a Hall of Honor, a Poets’ Corner, and generous helpings of art and illustration associated with American books and writers. They mention a place for fairytales and children’s literature. (We all have our personal areas of interest. I myself hope they won’t neglect science fiction.) All of this will be integrated with a movie theater, sound stage, café, and some archival capacity.

Though the location of The American Writers Museum Foundation is still to be determined, one of the cities that has emerged as a strong contender

is Chicago (Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Raymond Chandler, Shel Silverstein… need I say more?) While it may be possible to cavil against some details, you have to admire the scope of their vision and the impressive list of those who support and approve of the Museum in concept.

American books speak through their words, their covers, their pages, and their history. The American Writers Museum will enshrine these objects and their gloriously individual creators. It will be a National Gallery of the mind; a congress of the American spirit; and an ongoing carnival of our verbal heritage. As a lifelong reader and collector of American writing, I eagerly look forward to the realization of this much-needed enterprise. Who knows? There may even be a place in it for Van Wyck Brooks. AWP

Get Involved

Share Your Vision for The American Writers Museum by taking an online survey at:

<http://americanwritersmuseum.org/donate.php>

Responding to the survey will give you the opportunity to weigh in and shape this museum which is destined to become a highly valued national institution. You can also sign up to receive e-newsletters and updates.

Join the Movement and Support the Museum by making a secure online donation at:

<www.americanwritersmuseum.org>

For More InformationPaul Lehmberg, director, MFA program in creative writingplehmber@nmu.edu, www.nmu.edu/mfa

Russell Prather, director, MA programs in Englishrprather@nmu.edu, www.nmu.edu/english

Northern Michigan UniversityHome of Passages North

ProgramsNorthern Michigan University offers a 48-credit-hour MFA degree with a specialty in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. We also offer a 32-credit-hour MA degree with a specialty in writing, literature, or pedagogy.

MFA candidates are selected primarily on the basis of the portfolio submitted. portfolio submitted. Teaching fellowships and assistantships are available; candidates with teaching experience and/or a master’s degree will be given special consideration. Deadline for MFA and MA applications is February 1.

Recent Guest WritersTom BissellMary Clearman BlewRobert Olen ButlerLan Samantha ChangDennis CovingtonJohn D’AgataJohn D’AgataCarl DennisAndre Dubus IIIJim HarrisonPam HoustonBret Anthony JohnstonIlya KaminskyThomas Thomas LynchElizabeth McCrackenLeslie Adrienne MillerTim O’BrienScott Russell SandersAeronwy ThomasJeff VandeZande

FacultyKate Myers HansonAustin HummellJennifer A. HowardRon JohnsonPaul LehmbergBeverly MatherneBeverly MatherneDiane SautterJohn Smolens

Write Up North

NMU is an equal opportunity institution

Northern Michigan Universityis located in Marquette, Michigan,on the shore of Lake Superior.